MAVEN (Mars Scout 2)

Launch data: Designation  39378 / 13063A Launch date  18 Nov 2013 - 18:28 UT Launch site  CC, SLC-41 Launch vehicle  Atlas 5/401 (AV-038) Mission  Mars orbiter Heliocentric orbit Perihelion / Aphelion   A.U. Eccentricity   Inclination   deg Period   min

Spacecraft data:

Descriptions:

• A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, designated AV-038, will launch the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, mission. The MAVEN orbiter will study the upper atmosphere of Mars and determine the role the loss of atmospheric gas to space played in changing the Martian climate through time. The rocket will fly in the 401 vehicle configuration with a four-meter fairing, no solid rocket boosters and a single-engine Centaur upper stage.
• Mission goals include determining how the Martian atmosphere and water, presumed to have once been substantial, were lost over time.
• After arriving at Mars in the fall of 2014, MAVEN will use its propulsion system to enter an elliptical orbit ranging 90 to 3,870 miles above the planet. The spacecraft's eight science instruments will take measurements during a full Earth year, which is roughly equivalent to half of a Martian year. MAVEN also will dip to an altitude 80 miles above the planet to sample Mars' entire upper atmosphere. During and after its primary science mission, the spacecraft may be used to provide communications relay support for robotic missions on the Martian surface.

Mission details:

• MAVEN was successfully launched aboard an Atlas V launch vehicle at the beginning of the first launch window on November 18, 2013. It is designed to enter Martian orbit and study the escape of gases from the upper Martian atmosphere.
  It carries particles and fields instruments and an imaging ultraviolet spectrometer.
• MAVEN reached a 167 x 315 km x 26.7 deg parking orbit at 1841 UTC; the Centaur AV-038 stage restarted at 1909 UTC and inserted MAVEN into a 195 x -78200 km x 27.7 deg hyperbolic Earth orbit. MAVEN and the Centaur will leave the Earth-Moon system on Nov 21 and enter a 0.97 x 1.47 AU x 2.1 deg heliocentric orbit which will take them to the vicinity of Mars in Sep 2014.
• The NASA/JPL Maven space probe has arrived at Mars. MAVEN was in 0.96 x 1.45 AU x 2.0 deg solar orbit until entering Mars sphere of influence at 0100 UTC Sep 20, 2014 then in 537 x -15778 km x 74 deg hyperbola. At 0138 UTC on Sep 22, 2014 the probe began a 33 minute burn to brake into a bound 380 x 44600 km x 75 deg Mars orbit (parameters not yet confirmed).